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The newest spider to give arachnophobes the willies, a tarantula
named Poecilotheria rajaei has been discovered on the
island nation of Sri Lanka.

With a leg span of 8 inches (20 centimeters) and enough venom to
kill mice, lizards, small birds and snakes, according to
Sky News, the crawler is covered in subtle markings of gray,
pink and daffodil yellow.

"It can be quite attractive, unless spiders freak you out," Peter
Kirk, editor of the British Tarantula Society journal, told the
New York Daily News.

Even the scientists studying the spiders admit to being a little
freaked out by its size: "It was slightly smaller than the size
of the plate we have dinner on," Ranil Nanayakkara, co-founder of
Sri Lanka’s Biodiversity Education and Research, told the Daily
News.

Tarantulas have been the subject of considerable study lately:
Researchers are still trying to determine how or if
tarantulas use silk from the spigots on their feet. And in
2012, a scientist reported discovering nine species of colorful
Amazonian tarantulas in Brazil.

The newest tarantula, as part of the Poecilotheria genus
of arachnids (sometimes called "Pokies" or tiger spiders), is a
tree-dwelling spider. All the Pokies, known for being colorful,
fast and venomous, are found only in India and Sri Lanka,
Wired reports. [ Photos:
The World's Creepiest Spiders ]

"They are quite rare," Nanayakkara told Wired. "They prefer
well-established old trees, but due to deforestation the number
have dwindled, and due to lack of suitable habitat they enter old
buildings."

The spider was first seen in 2009 after the discovery of a dead
male specimen, on which scientists noticed a unique pink
abdominal band.

"In order to establish if this really was a new species to Sri
Lanka and to the world, the authors carried out intensive and
extensive surveys in the northern part of Sri Lanka to establish
the distribution and ecology of this new species," the scientists
write in the British Tarantula Society journal.

"But what was lacking was a female or any other specimen of the
same type. Days of extensive searching in every tree hole and
bark peel were rewarded with a female and to our satisfaction
several juveniles too."

It's not yet known exactly how rare the newly discovered
tarantula is, but there's some concern that habitat destruction
is causing their number to dwindle. Additionally, northern Sri
Lanka, where the spider was found, has been wracked by political
violence in recent years.

"It demonstrates that wildlife continues to survive whilst we are
in the throes of conflict and that they can adapt to its changing
environment," Kirk told Sky News, "but … we risk destroying the
habitats of species new to science and condemning them to
extinction before they are even discovered."